A Meeting in Tucson:

On May 22, 1999, members of the Coalition board traveled to Tucson for a meeting with representatives of various Tucson bike clubs and related civic organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to initiate a dialogue and develop a partnership between these organizations to make for a stronger statewide advocacy group.

Bill Lazenby, coalition chairman, opened the meeting with an introduction of all meeting attendees. The attendees from the Tucson area were Ray Schoonover, Richard Corbett, Dick Forcier, Dick Shaffer, Norm Land and Richard DeBernardis.

Bill gave brief history of the Coalition. He also made it clear that the Coalition was not a rival organization to put on rides but rather a bicyclists advocacy group dedicated to support of the bicyclist in making bicycling facilities, support and laws, within Arizona as favorable to the cyclist as possible. Also that the Coalition was committed to making Arizona the number 1 state for bicycling. Bill also reported that the coalition had a good track record when working with ADOT concerning bicycle issues.

Doug Banfelder, Coalition legislative liaison and other hats, reported that the Coalition was beginning coordination with the state's tourism industry to promote what Arizona has to offer in the bicycling arena.

With a motion, second and vote Richard Corbett was added to the Coalition board. He will assume the duties of Education Committee Chair, the Coalition liaison with the League of American Bicyclists, and serve as a conduit for information exchange between the Coalition and Tucson area bicyclists. A second Tucson representative will be added at a later date.

The subject of "bike paths verses bike lanes" was brought up for discussion. It was made clear that the Coalition's position is that the construction of bike paths should be avoided accept in extraordinary circumstances. Each bike path develop plan must be reviewed thoroughly before any OK is given. Doug Banfelder pointed out that the accident rate on bike paths was 1.6 time greater than bike lanes.

The community bike ride problem in the Tucson area was discussed. The Coalition and club representatives agreed that the Tucson community rides were producing negative results for the Tucson bicyclists and had the potential of hurting Arizona bicycling as a whole. It was felt that if it continued a motorist would lose his cool and cause injury and even death to any bicyclist that got in the way. Richard Corbett was requested to prepare a draft press release outlining the Coalition position. This draft would be then circulated among all the bicycling organizations impacted in the Tucson area. The approved draft would be released to the News Media at an opportune time.

The concept of statewide quarterly board meetings was presented. The Coalition board would continue to meet on a monthly basis in the Phoenix area. The quarterly meetings would be held at various locations in the state. The prime sites to start will be Prescott, Flagstaff, Tucson, Phoenix and Casa Grande.

The meeting ended with an agreement that more must be done to get all the bicycling organizations with the state as active participants with the Coalition.

Meeting with Prescott Bicyclists:

On April 24th Bill Lazenby, Doug Banfelder, Bill Heinman, and Pete Joyce traveled to Prescott to meet with members of the Chain Gang Bicycle Club, The Prescott Bicycle Advisory Committee and Prescott Alternative Transportation Group.

The visit started with a ride through the hills around Prescott. Needless to say the altitude and weather (cold and wet) got to some of us flatland peddlers and we bombed early. Doug Banfelder, however, was in training for the Challenge and he went all out and handled everything Tim Travis (Chain Gang President) had to offer for a route.

In the afternoon we met with the representatives of the groups listed above. The purpose of the meeting was to brief the attendees on the history of the coalition and what our mission and goals were. Since House Bill 2551 originated in the Prescott legislative district 1, it was the top topic of the meeting. Another important topic was getting the Prescott area bicycle groups more active in the Coalition. To that end a meeting is planned in Prescott on the 26th of June. More on this as the discussions unfold.

May Meeting News:

A review of coalition membership renewals was given by Bill Lazenby. He pointed out that the Phoenix Metro Chapter of GABA had renewed and as in the past they doubled the membership fee and challenge the other clubs to do the same.

The coalition is developing process notebooks for the Statewide Meeting and the Swap meet. The purpose of these notebooks is to pull all the activities required, to put on these two functions, into a standard process procedure notebook making it easier to conduct these two functions in the future.

A coalition meeting is scheduled for May 22d in Tucson. This is a result of the coordinated discussions during the statewide meeting. The agenda will cover areas such as Membership, a review of the coalition, it history, the educational goals, the legislative work it does and the resulting impact. We will also cover means to improve current relationships and to forge new ones. We will cover the plans of the coalition for the present both from a membership and partnership point of view. The future plans for a strong statewide advocacy will be covered. "What do you want from the Coalition". Lets us share ideas and goals. Rich Corbett of Tucson is to become a member of the Coalition board with a prime responsibility as our liaison with the League of American Bicyclists and to be the Education coordinator. Additional Tucson area Coalition board representation will be discussed at this meeting. (There will be a special edition of this newsletter on the evening of May 22d covering the meeting, in Tucson, that afternoon).

We have had some set backs in getting the Coalition web site up and operating. When you talk about computers this delay is nothing new. The Alpha startup of the web site will be within a week.

The Coalition is scheduling a meeting in Prescott on the 26th of June. This will be the quarterly out state meeting.

The Coalition Board will be setting up the schedule for the coming year which will include quarterly out state meetings, bicycle education sessions, swap meet, statewide meeting and related stuff.

Rich Rumer has been in contact with Bicycle Advocates in the Flagstaff area. They are interested in becoming more closely associated with the work of the Coalition. A meeting is tentatively scheduled for some time in September in Flagstaff.

Mark this date on your Calendar. The Coalition Swap Meet held in conjunction with the Phoenix Clean Air and Bike week will be held on April 15, 2000.

The Coalition:

The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists is a nonprofit organization devoted to advancing bicycling as a sport and mode of transportation through cooperation with local and state government, by being active in government where it concerns bicycling.

Monthly meetings are held at the Los Olivos Senior Center on 28th street one block north of Indian School, the 3rd Monday of the month, 7PM. All are welcome and encouraged to attend whether you are a coalition member or not. If your club is not presently represented we invite you to send a representative.

Road hazards? Report them to the Hazard Hotline.

Coalition address:
Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists
P.O. Box 54488
Phoenix, AZ 85078-4488
Phone: 602-485-1198
Coalition e-mail

Club annual membership is $150; individual annual is $25.

Statewide Bicycling Advocacy Meeting:

The Coalition conducted the First Annual Conference on the State of Bicycling in Arizona on Thursday April 15th. The conference was a success and plans are underway for next year's conference. The attendees were welcomed by Bill Lazenby the current President of the Coalition. He was followed by Bill (Mr. Bill) Heimann Founder and former President of the Coalition. Bill reported on the State of the State of Bicycling in Arizona. Basically we have come from a very unfriendly bicycle environment 10 years ago to one that is taking bicycling needs into consideration when developing local and statewide roadway and pathway facilities. He set some goals for the Coalition. The first and probably most important is to get Arizona to the position of the being the #1 bicycle friendly state in the Nation.

The next presenter was Tim Oliver, Systems Planning Branch Manager, Maricopa County, MCDOT. His subject was "ISTEA Success in Arizona." He stated that there has been identifiable progress in the development of good bike facilities through the use of ISTEA monies. However he cautioned that for continued long term success there has to be thorough planning with the ISTEA/TEA21 spec parameters and a good process from start to finish.

Matthew Zoll, Chairman of the Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee and Tom Fisher, Tucson Bicycle/Pedestrian Planner, spoke next. Their subject was "The role of the Bicycle in the multi-modal transportation system." In other words, where does the bike fit in relation to the pedestrian and motor vehicles? Their presentation covered what has been accomplished in the Tucson Area, the type of education and cooperation of all parties impacted, and how to get these parties actively involved in the planning and implementation process.

Dick Shaffer, Regional Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator, Pima County presented his thoughts on proper and effective regional planning. It was quite apparent from this presentation, as from the others, that in order to be successful in acquiring ISETA/TEA21 funding, for bicycling related projects or to have bicycling requirements adopted in the development of larger highway and street projects, the plan and planning must be current and ready for implementation immediately. This requirement is imposed as the over all process from inception to completion normally takes 3 to 5 years.

Richard Moeur, Traffic Engineer, ADOT gave a presentation on the design requirement of good bicycle facilities. This included required roadway, pathway and street bike-lane width requirements. Rich also discussed the "Rumble Strip" and what is being done to improve and make it more bicycle friendly. He stated that there were tests nearing completion on a new "Rumble Strip" design. It appears that this design will prove to be more bicycle friendly and yet accomplish the objective of protecting the motorist from himself. More on this later.

The featured speaker for the conference was Andy Clarke, Federal Highway Administration. His subject was "Accessing and Implementing TEA-21 Funding." Andy's presentation concentrated on the Pathway to the Future. He discussed the Funding, Planning, Bicycle and Pedestrian requirements, and Special Reports and Research that will be positively impacted by TEA-21. His basic message was that what was established in ISTEA remained in TEA-21 He said that TEA-21 made much clearer what the requirements would be for Bicycling and Pedestrian issues in future funding for TEA-21 projects. However he did say that not all Bicycling and Pedestrian subprojects would or could be approved. The words he used were "due consideration". The bottom line is that Transportation projects and plans shall "provide due consideration for or where appropriate in conjunction with" for bicycle and pedestrian requirements.

With the success of this meeting, planning has already begun for the 2d annual meeting. Watch this space for further details.

The Annual Coalition Bike Swap Meet:

The second annual Coalition bike swap meet was held on Saturday April 17 in the parking lot of the Phoenix Municipal Stadium. There were 70 booths and much merchandise changed hands. The participation was much larger that last year and it is expected to increase in upcoming years. Of Course the weather was very cooperative. The date of the swap meet next year will be determined by when the clean air campaign is scheduled. Look for further information in this news letter.

Richard Moeur Coalition Member:

Richard Moeur, recent president of the Arizona Bicycle Club, has been appointed by the League of American Bicyclists as their voting representative to the 37-member National Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (NCUTCD). This committee is responsible for developing standards for the Federal Government for signing, markings, signals, and other traffic control.

Richard has been a member of the NCUTCD Bicycle Technical Committee for the past two years, and has been active in traffic engineering issues involving bicycles for the past 10 years.

The Coalition:

The Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists is a nonprofit organization devoted to advancing bicycling as a sport and mode of transportation through cooperation with local and state government, by being active in government where it concerns bicycling.

Monthly meetings are held at the Los Olivos Senior Center on 28th street one block north of Indian School, the 3rd Monday of the month, 7PM. All are welcome and encouraged to attend whether you are a coalition member or not. If your club is not presently represented we invite you to send a representative.

Road hazards? Report them to the Hazard Hotline.

Coalition address:
Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists
P.O. Box 54488
Phoenix, AZ 85078-4488
Phone: 602-485-1198
Coalition e-mail

Club annual membership is $150; individual annual is $25.

On Saturday, March 27th, it was time once again to do the annual twenty five-mile race from Casa Grande to the Indian ruins in Coolidge. Susan and I have ridden our tandem in this event the last two years and both times won first place in the tandem category – it was time to defend our crown. Actually, this is a low-key event put on by the Casa Grande Parks and Recreation Department that attracts anywhere from 50 to 100 riders of various ages and abilities. Usually, only twenty or so actually regard this as a competitive event and the rest are happy just to complete the ride.

This year, the race got little publicity, which probably accounted for the relatively samll turnout – only about 50 riders. I had called the Casa Grande Parks Department a month ago to ask about the event and the lady who took my call never heard of it; she was sure that they did not organize any such race. I thought that the ride was being discontinued, perhaps due to declining participation, but I was wrong. Looking through a copy of Sweat magazine, I spotted a little ad for 14th Annual "Ride the Ruins" to be held on Saturday, March 27th at O’Neil Park at 8:00 A.M.

Since we live in Fountain Hills, we had to get up pretty early in order to drive to Casa Grande in time to register, unload the tandem, warm up and get a spot at the start line near the front. Susan and I arrived in plenty of time, but I’m here to tell you that 7 A.M. in Casa Grande the temperature is, well, brisk. You know it’s cold when you can see your breath in the desert morning air! The thermometer in our truck indicated 43 degrees when we arrived. Good thing we decided to wear our tights!

We took our time getting ready, waiting for the Sun to warm us up. By the time we actually got on the bike to start our warm up it was only five minutes before the race was to begin. In fact, we almost didn’t make it back in time for the start! But we did, and we edged our machine near the front of the line. I zeroed out our computer and we waited for the starter to shoot the gun.

Blam! The race was on! The start was pretty uneventful – we easily clipped in our pedals and I started us out in a fairly easy gear to keep our rpms up. Soon we made the right turn onto Pinal Road and the pace really picked up. We are unable to accelerate as quickly as the singles and so a small gap opened up between us and the leaders. We were doing about 25 mph and the gap was about 50 – 70 feet. I chose not to attempt to bridge up to the lead group as both Susan and I were working hard and it was way to early to anerobic and eat into our glycogen stores. I opted to maintain our pace – there were other cyclists drafting behind us and no other tandems to share the work.

The gap widened and a few singles who were behind us decided to break away from us and bridge up to the leaders. I estimated that there were about dozen or so riders ahead of us but the important thing to me was that there were no tandems. Still, I kept the pace up. Susan was working hard – I could tell because I could feel her helmet pressed up against my butt. We both had our heads down and putting our all into the pedals.

Pinal Road has a slight upward pitch as we head towards I-10. We climbed on the overpass and soon thereafter made a right turn to the only hill on the course. At this point, There were three other riders with us and the lead group was out of sight. We slowed to 15 mph on the climb; our little group broke up – one rider passed us but we didn’t let him get more than 100 feet ahead. The other two were trying to hang onto our wheel. As we neared the summit I told them to hang on a little longer as we would catch the other guy on the descent.

Sure enough, after we passed the summit we quickly gained speed – 25 mph, 28 mph, 32 mph, 36 mph. We reached a maximum velocity of 40 mph and as we approached the guy in front of us I shouted for him to get ready to jump on. We were all together as a group once again and soon after reaching the bottom we turned right on the highway leading to Coolidge. I could see a single rider up ahead about ¾ of a mile – I wanted to try to catch him but I didn’t know if the others in our little group were inclined to work that hard.

Susan and I took extended pulls at 23 mph. The others were willing to share the work by rotating in the pace line, but one guy was really struggling and we slowed to 19 mph when he got up front. I told him to forget about taking pulls – just rotate around to the back and we would do the work. Slowly we were overtaking the rider out front. At first, Susan thought I was hallucinating when I kept mumbling about trying to catch the guy up front, but soon we got close enough to see that he was wearing a green jersey.

At one point I decided to surge in order to close the gap even further – we increased our speed to 25 mph and held it there for a couple of minutes. The distance between us and the rider up front grew shorter but we were unable to hold the pace. I pulled to the left and the guys behind us took over. Unfortunately, I was so winded that we fell behind and I had to give us a few moments to catch our breaths and then mash on the pedals once again to catch up.

By the time we rotated back up to the front of our little pace line we were within 20 feet of the rider we were chasing and as we pulled up alongside I yelled "Tag, you’re it!". He laughed, and for awhile we rode side-by-side. I told him to take a break and get in behind us, but he seemed unwilling to do so. But soon the other guys surged ahead of us and the guy we caught seemed pretty well spent. I told him to hang on and we would pull him back up to the group. I didn’t care if we finished together as we were within a mile of the finish and there were no other tandems in sight. Susan and I did pull him up to the others and when he rejoined them we backed off.

We crossed the finish line in 1 hour, five minutes and fifty three seconds. We finished 15th overall, about four and a half minutes behind the first place rider. Did we retain our crown? Well, not officially. You see, one of our fellow tandem friends, Jonathan, pre-registered for the race, but his partner, Anna, couldn’t ride that day because her family was in town visiting, so he rode his single. He finished about a minute ahead of us but because he was registered in the tandem category he was posted as the tandem winner! We kidded him about it and jokingly threatened to expose him only if we were awarded a really cool prize. He won two water bottles and two boxes of Power Bars, so we let him keep them. We won two sets of Cannondale "Trail Tools".

The third place tandem couple had only recently gotten their bike and was still getting used it. Jonathan gave them a box of Power Bars and gave away the other box to another rider; we have Jonathan one of our Trail Tools. Jonathan and Anna are strong riders and had they both ridden their tandem Susan and I probably would have come in behind them anyway. The guy in the green jersey that we caught near the end finished first in the 50-59-age category.

We all had fun and plan to do it again next year, though I am threatening to ride my single. To have a chance at winning in my age category I have to finish in the lead group with a time of 1:01 or better. That will be tough for me to do, but then maybe I can pre-register in the tandem category!

Brian Buckmaster